Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights et al v. Deal et al

Filing 29

MOTION for Preliminary Injunction with Brief In Support by Alterna, Asian American Legal Advocacy Center, Paul Bridges, Coalition for the People's Agenda, Coalition of Latino Leaders, DREAM Activist.org, Jane Doe # 1, John Doe # 1, Jane Doe # 2, John Doe # 2, Paul J. Edwards, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Sharon Gruner, Everitt Howe, Instituto de Mexico, Inc. of Atlanta, Ernesto Pinon, Service Employees International Union, Jaypaul Singh, Southern Regional Joint Board of Workers' United, Benjamin Speight, Task Force for the Homeless. (Attachments: # 1 Brief Memorandum in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction, # 2 Index of Exhibits, # 3 Exhibit Exhibit 1 Georgia House Bill 87, # 4 Exhibit Exhibit 2 Declaration of Abraham F. Lowenthal, # 5 Exhibit Exhibit 3 Declaration of Jane Doe 2, # 6 Exhibit Exhibit 4 Declaration of David S. Kennedy, Jr., # 7 Exhibit Exhibit 5 Declaration of Paul Bridges, # 8 Exhibit Exhibit 6 Declaration of Benjamin Speight, # 9 Exhibit Exhibit 7 Declaration of Everitt Howe, # 10 Exhibit Exhibit 8 Declaration of Paul C. Edwards, Jr., # 11 Exhibit Exhibit 9 Declaration of Sharon Gruner, # 12 Exhibit Exhibit 10 Declaration of Jane Doe 1, # 13 Exhibit Exhibit 11 Declaration of George Gascon, # 14 Exhibit Exhibit 12 Declaration of Eduardo Gonzalez, # 15 Exhibit Exhibit 13 Declaration of Lewis Smith, # 16 Exhibit Exhibit 14 Declaration of Ernesto Pion, # 17 Exhibit Exhibit 15 Declaration of Jaypaul Singh, # 18 Exhibit Exhibit 16 Declaration of John Doe 1, # 19 Exhibit Exhibit 17 Declaration of John Doe 2, # 20 Exhibit Exhibit 18 Declaration of Silvia America Gruner, # 21 Exhibit Exhibit 19 Declaration of Anton Flores, # 22 Exhibit Exhibit 20 Declaration of Adelina C. Nicholls, # 23 Exhibit Exhibit 21 Declaration of Anita Beaty, # 24 Exhibit Exhibit 22 Declaration of Helen Kim Ho, # 25 Exhibit Exhibit 23 Declaration of Mohammad Abdollahi Ali-Beik, # 26 Exhibit Exhibit 24 Declaration of Eliseo Medina, # 27 Exhibit Exhibit 25 Declaration of Harris Raynor, # 28 Exhibit Exhibit 26 Declaration of Gabriela Gonzalez-Lamberson, # 29 Exhibit Exhibit 27 Declaration of Molly Lauterback and Exhibits A through F, # 30 Exhibit Exhibit 28 Exhibits G through J for Declaration of Molly Lauterback, # 31 Exhibit Exhibit 29 Exhibits K through M for Declaration of Molly Lauterback, # 32 Text of Proposed Order Proposed Order Granting Motion for Preliminary Injunction)(Lapointe, Michelle) (Attachment 20 replaced on 6/10/2011) (dgs). (Attachment 29 replaced on 6/10/2011) (dgs).

EXHIBIT 18

DECLARATION OF SILVIA AMERICA GRUNER
I, Silvia America Gruner, hereby declare:
I make this declaration based on my personal knowledge and if called to testify I
could and would do so competently as follows.
1. I am the president and founder of the Coalition of Latino Leaders (CLILA).
I am a Mexican national with permanent residency in the United States. I
currently reside in Whitfield County, Georgia.
2. CLILA is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based membership organization in
Dalton, Georgia, that started working in May 2006. It was incorporated in
February 2007, and was awarded 501(c)(3) status in December 2008.
3. CLILA’ s mission is to develop competent, caring Latino grassroots
leadership with a variety of skills necessary to address the critical issues that
challenge the Northwest Georgia Latino community. We strive to advocate
alongside our fellow immigrants for human rights and civil rights, and to
encourage members of the Latino community to engage in civic activities
and to participate in the political process, by providing voter registration,
voter education, and citizenship education. We have about 150 regular
members and about 1,000 participants in different activities.

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4. CLILA provides a variety of services to the community: Advocacy and
community organizing for immigrants’ rights; citizenship classes; English
classes; Homework Club for children whose parents don’t speak English;
computer classes for people who don’t have access to other computer
resources; assistance in completing applications for legal residency and
citizenship; community meetings on different issues affecting the Latino
community such as: workers’ rights, legislative updates, how the U.S. legal
system works, and educational rights; voter registration and education, and
forums to bridge gaps between immigrant and native-born communities.
Also, once we identify that children, or on few occasions parents, in our
community are eligible for food stamps, we hold community meetings
instructing parents on how to apply for food stamps. At the meetings we
instruct parents where to go to apply for food stamps and provide assistance
to fill out the forms if such assistance is needed. All of our services are
provided regardless of the individual’s immigration status.
5. Our programs and services are provided for community members living in
Dalton, Whitfield, and Murray counties in the state of Georgia. Our
members are Latino immigrants, mainly low-income families. We accept
members without inquiring about their immigration status in the United
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States. The average number of people we serve a year is about 1,000
individuals, with an estimated 60% undocumented immigrants.
6. The goals of our organization include advocacy and community organizing.
We develop and implement an advocacy agenda to impact local, state, and
federal policy and services. We work on building alliances and coalitions to
build power and affect positive social change for the Latino community. We
encourage civic participation to empower the Latino community to fully
participate in U.S. democracy, better integrate into the U.S. system, and
make use of their voting rights/responsibilities. One important goal is to
increase the percentage of Latinos voting in 2012 elections, especially in this
time of increasingly negative anti-Latino initiatives and politics. We further
empower Latino community members to claim their rightful place in the
civic, cultural, and economic life of Northwest Georgia and we offer
opportunities for Latinos to positively showcase our culture to the general
community. We also encourage Latinos to build bridges with other groups
and reduce ethnic tensions.
7. CLILA also focuses on leadership development by preparing Latino
grassroots leaders to address the critical issues challenging the Northwest
Georgia Latino community. We encourage parent involvement by asking
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parents to advocate for their children, and be more involved in their
children’s education.
8. CLILA has already been harmed by the passage of HB 87 in many ways,
and these problems will only get worse if the bill goes into effect. As a
result of the adoption of HB 87, attendance in our different programs and
services decreased significantly because our members fear that their
association with our organization will cause them to be identified as
undocumented by the police. In the short time since the law passed, it is
already affecting our goals and regular activities because people are afraid of
coming to our office thinking they could be stopped, interrogated, and
detained by local law enforcement on their way here due to little more than
their Latino appearance. Our attendances for the English classes and
homework club have also decreased significantly since HB 87 passed.
People who used to attend these classes have expressed that they feel there is
no use to continue trying to attend because they fear they could be stopped
and detained by local police at any point and subsequently deported.
9. CLILA’s resources, both in funding and in staff and volunteer time, have
been diverted from our priority projects because of the passage of HB 87.
For example, the numbers of calls we receive daily have increased by 400%
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due to the adoption of HB 87. People are calling to ask about the new law or
with questions about how it will be implemented. We had to increase the
number of hours invested in returning calls. As a result of this demand for
information on HB 87, we had to put on hold our citizenship classes because
we could not adequately staff them. People in the process of gaining
citizenship are being negatively affected because we do not have anyone
available to provide information or to practice the citizenship questions with
them, nor to help fill out their applications.  
10. CLILA itself could be forced to close its doors because of HB 87. Seventy
percent of our funds come from the grassroots community we serve, and as
we have seen our participation numbers decline our funding is very likely to
decline as well. I am very alarmed that we may not be able to continue
operating in our current form. This risk would be even higher if the law is
allowed to take effect, because our community will become even more
alarmed and scared if that happened.
11. Because 60% of our members and the people we serve are estimated to be
undocumented, implementation of HB 87 will make it impossible for them
to get around, and even its mere passage has already had profound
consequences. People who used to offer Latinos rides are now refusing to
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provide assistance for fear of being charged with a crime under HB 87.
Many of our members already cannot drive because they lack a Georgia
driver’s license. Also many of our members are working or looking for a
job without proper documents, and they are afraid their employers will fire
them soon because of HB 87. At least three employers that do not want to
be identified have told us that they will not be able to keep open their
businesses because of fear of being charged with penalties for hiring
undocumented immigrants under HB 87 and fear of losing business once
immigrants begin to flee from Georgia. They are waiting to see if lawsuits
challenging HB 87 succeed; otherwise they plan to terminate their
employees thinking they will be in constant risk of being charged with
crimes.
12. CLILA provides transportation to certain events for many members,
including members that we know do not have lawful immigration status.
Our drivers occasionally exceed the speed limit in order to make it to our
designated locations in time. We also transport undocumented children and
adults from roadblock sites to our office or their houses when their relative
has been arrested and the children do not have anywhere else to go or
anyone to turn to. Because we provide these services constantly and are
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likely to continue it in the future, we could be criminally charged of
transporting individuals under HB 87. If implemented, HB 87 will interfere
with transporting members of the organization to marches and rallies across
the state, as well as to different local community resources and very
frequently for English classes or community meetings. It will thus greatly
impact our goals. HB 87 makes it impossible for CLILA to provide services
to our community members without discriminating against them on the basis
of their immigration status or risking criminal prosecution under the new
law.
13. For example, CLILA intends to help with the upcoming Dreamer
Conference for undocumented immigrant students. We intend to help
students come to Georgia and we intend to provide transportation for them
while here. HB 87 will significantly affect our plans because it will make
CLILA criminally liable for transporting, assisting and enticing
undocumented individuals into the state of Georgia.
14. CLILA sends its announcements and press releases to all local Spanish
speaking media, which circulate in Northwest Georgia and Southeast TN,
with the purpose of inviting people, including undocumented individuals, to
attend our activities and community meetings and to stay informed about the
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rights and issues affecting the immigrant community. CLILA also promotes
its activities by inviting people to listen to two Spanish speaking radio
stations which also air in Tennessee and Kentucky. CLILA sends its
announcements and press releases to a newspaper in Chattanooga, TN 
because is the largest metropolis that is close to us, and it has a large number
of immigrants in need of our services. As a result of these announcements,
we receive visits from individuals from those states and we provide them
services such as community meetings, immigration workshops, citizenship
classes and others. HB 87 poses a threat to all these programs by labeling
these actions as enticing undocumented immigrants into Georgia. Because
we are likely to continue providing these services, HB 87 makes CLILA
liable to criminal prosecution under the law. The alternative of ceasing to
provide these services will cause a loss of membership and stand against the
goals of our organization.
15. The additional document requirements set forth in HB 87 also bring
problems to our organization. It increases the fear of racially profiling within
our community and its implementation greatly affects our organization and
our members. Many of our members do not possess any documents within
list and therefore are afraid of leaving their house if HB 87 is enforced. As a
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result our attendance will decrease and members who usually help us set up
for events are expected to stop volunteering for fear of being asked for their
documentation. For example, people who come to apply for residency at our
office do not have a status or any documentation. Attendance of our
workshops is thus expected to decline greatly.
16. Fear of local law enforcement in our community already exists because of
the 287(g) programs operating in some parts of the state. Now with HB 87,
members think the police presence in the streets will increase and detentions
of Latinos will also increase. I expect attendance at CLILA rallies to further
decline due to fear of police intervention and arrests due to possible offenses
being committed by certain members in the crowd. Many members have
expressed concern about participating in our events because they might be at
risk of being charged with a crime or have their immigration status
questioned simply due to their presence, lack of documents required under
HB 87, and/or Latino appearance.
17. Members have also expressed concerns that HB 87 will increase racial
profiling by law enforcement because officers will feel empowered to stop
and interrogate many individuals regarding citizenship status regardless of
whether they have committed a traffic violation (as we have seen in
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